North Korean Foreign Minister: “United States declared war on our country”

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has accused United States President Donald Trump of delcaring war on the rogue state.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Monday, Ri said, “Last weekend Trump claimed that our leadership wouldn’t be around much longer and declared a war on our country,” according to an official translation, as cited by CNN.

Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!

Ri claimed the ‘declaration of war’ by the US President justified “self-defensive counter measures”.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make all self-defensive counter measures, including the right to shoot down the United States strategic bombers at any time even when they are not yet inside the aerospace border of our country,” the North Korean Foreign Minister said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders denied the accusation. She said, “Frankly, the suggestion of that is absurd.”

Sanders challenged the notion that North Korea could “shoot down” US planes. “It is never appropriate for a country to shoot down another country’s aircraft when it’s over international waters,” she said at a press conference.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters the US military “will take all options to make sure that we safeguard our allies and our partners and our homeland so if North Korea does not stop their provocative actions we’ll make sure we provide options to the President to deal with North Korea.”

When questioned about the North Korean Foreign Minister’s accusation against Donald Trump, Manning said, “Our job as the Department of Defense is, as you know, to make sure that the President is provided military options, we’ll continue to do that, and we have a deep arsenal of military options to provide the President so then he can decide how he wants to deal with North Korea and the regime.”